Crawford grew up in DeKalb, Ill., near Chicago, where her father worked as an electrician and her mother was employed as a bank teller. In 1982, while working during the summer detasseling corn on a nearby farm, she was spotted and photographed by a local news photographer. The following year she entered the Look of the Year modeling contest (later renamed Elite Model Look) held by Elite Model Management, one of the largest modeling agencies in the world. Her status as a finalist secured her professional representation, which quickly generated modeling assignments. In 1984 Crawford graduated as class valedictorian from DeKalb High School and began pursuing a degree in chemical engineering at Northwestern University on an academic scholarship. She found it increasingly difficult, however, to juggle school and modeling, and in 1985 she dropped out of college to model full time.

In 1986 Crawford relocated to New York City to pursue a professional modeling career. Touted as “Baby Gia” in reference to her resemblance to the late top fashion model Gia Carangi, Crawford immediately secured work. Her big break came when she was chosen as the cover model for the August 1986 issue of Vogue, the leading fashion magazine, whose decision not to airbrush out the beauty mark above her upper lip—which many industry professionals deemed a flaw—set a new industry standard and ensured her eventual trademark.

Crawford’s intelligence, down-to-earth demeanour, and athletic, full-bodied physique earned her a rare cross-gender appeal. She became the first modern fashion model to appear nude in the men’s magazine Playboy (July 1988) and was chosen to host the fashion television show House of Style (1989–95), which held a 50 percent male audience.

In 1989 Crawford signed a four-year, multimillion-dollar contract with Revlon, which gained her international recognition. She was subsequently featured with fellow models Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, and Tatjana Patitz on the cover of British Vogue (January 1990). The grouping of several top models on a single cover attracted significant attention, and the models were chosen to again appear together in the pop singer George Michael’s Freedom ’90 music video. Gianni Versace, then a top fashion designer, in turn hired Crawford, Turlington, Evangelista, and Campbell to simultaneously walk the runway to the video at his couture show (1991), eliciting a standing ovation from the audience. The monumental event is believed by many industry professionals to have marked the official debut of the “supermodel”—a top fashion model who appears simultaneously on the covers of the world’s leading fashion magazines and is globally recognized by first name only. Later that year, Crawford wed Hollywood actor Richard Gere; they divorced in 1995.

Crawford quickly gained a reputation for her business savvy and is widely considered to be the first model to diversify her career by venturing into multiple industries. She launched her own production company, Crawdaddy Inc., to exclusively manage her career, and in 1992 she released the first installment in her fitness video trilogy, which sold millions.

As the supermodel phenomenon began to rise, Crawford was at the forefront of a small group of models—known in the industry as “the supers”—who became worldwide celebrities, increasingly dominating both the high-fashion runways and the global media. American singer RuPaul captured the phenomenon in the 1993 hit song aptly titled Supermodel, which mentioned the year’s top models, including Crawford, Turlington, Campbell, Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, and Niki Taylor, by first name only. In 1995 Crawford appeared in a major advertising campaign for PepsiCo, Inc., and was named the top-earning model in the world by the U.S. publishing and media company Forbes.

Crawford made her acting debut in the 1995 film Fair Game and appeared in the fashion documentaries Unzipped (1995) and Catwalk (1996). She also authored Cindy Crawford’s Basic Face: A Makeup Workbook (1996).

The late 1990s marked the end of the supermodel era. Crawford again posed nude for Playboy (October 1998) to promote her ABC television special Sex with Cindy Crawford, which examined sexual attitudes in America. The show, however, received poor ratings. Following a partnership of more than a decade, Revlon opted not to renew its contract with Crawford. In 2000 she retired from modeling.

In the early 21st century, Crawford launched a string of signature products. She was also featured in the New YorkMetropolitan Museum of Art exhibition “The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion” (2009), which showcased the models who epitomized fashion during the 20th century.

Crawford has appeared on more than 1,000 magazine covers and has walked the runways of the world’s top fashion labels, including Chanel, Valentino, and Christian Dior.

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